Universe+City

Created By Kasandra Singh || Put a graphic here ||
 * || =Universe City=

Overview
Create a mini-virtual world of alien life forms (based on certain principles of evolution, etc.) and sustain it's population. The game consists of three stages. Stage 1, Creation: Begin by choosing a planet suitable for life (based on real planets in the known galaxy), the game will guide players and define suitability. Then, terraform the planet so that adequate water and plant life are in progress. Choose features of a life form that would be necessary to live on this planet. Create up to three species on the same planet. Create food sources for these species and program them to either be hunter gatherers or predators of the other two species.

Stage 2, Survival and Evolution: The goal is to maintain an equilibrium between these species. Encounter scenarios as the populations struggle with their development and choose the right course of action to ensure that the population does not become extinct. When each population reaches 100 members, you may choose to develop one of them intellectually. You will still be responsible for keeping the other species alive and scenarios will pop up now and then in which you will have to give some attention to the other species and keep them out of harm's way.

Stage 3, Cultural Evolution: Choose one of the populations to begin intellectual evolution. Choose a basic tool out of the choices of flint stones, sticks, etc. Each time you choose a new tool, you must test the tool by playing as one of the species to perform a puzzle test. After completing the puzzle test, a new set of tools will become available. The last chosen tool is a spaceship. When the population builds a spaceship, the game has been won.

Instructional Objective
Players will learn about the principles of physics, astronomy, biology and psychology.

The following National Standards are incorporated:

Learners
The game is designed for high school students grades 9-12 and adults. The students playing this game must have a basic understanding of evolution and geo-sciences but the game will provide much information as they play so that they are learning along with the game.

Context of Use
The game can be used individually at home or used within a school setting. It is meant to be played for an extended period of time. If played in school, it can be played over a series of lab times (It would probably take around 5-6 lab times to complete. It could also be played as a class if the teacher only wishes to establish the planet and choose the species to demonstrate these principles to students. Or, if the instructor has already established the three species, they could demonstrate keeping equilibrium and only play stage 2 of the game with students in class. Prior to the game, the instructor should already have introduced students to the principles of evolution and students should have some idea of what is necessary in an environment in order to sustain life.

This could be created using the Unity platform. It is meant to be a one player game although for teaching purposes a group led by an instructor could make decisions together in order to establish the life forms. If played through the entire game, it should take somewhere between 5-6 hours to complete this game.

Object of the Game
The goal of the entire game is for the chosen population to have built a spaceship, while all three populations must still be alive. If any of the three populations dies out, the game is lost. == ==

Competing Products
This game is similar to Sim City and Spore. It combines elements of these two games and also adds more to it by incorporating some astronomy and scenarios. There will also be some puzzles and challenges so that the game is somewhat like Portal or other puzzle games.

Design Details
This is the heart of the document. It will serve as a blueprint for those who actually develop the game. The more specific you can be here, the less backtracking and expensive confusion there will be later.

//Universal Elements// Describe and provide illustrations of the overall look and feel of the game. What style of graphics and sounds will be used? Cartoonish? Photorealistic? Wacky? Business-like? Colorful? Muted? //Specific Elements// The specifics from this point on will vary depending on the format of game that you're using. For adventure games, provide: For branching stories, provide: For quiz games, provide: For arcade games, provide: For simulations, provide: //Technical Elements// Describe the:
 * an overall map of the simulated world, showing its boundaries and major features
 * a description of the role the learner is playing while moving through the world
 * a description of the overall game goal the learner is trying to achieve
 * a flowchart showing all possible rooms and allowable moves
 * a decription of the obstacles that will challenge the learner
 * a list of all prizes or artifacts and their locations
 * profiles of all non-player characters
 * a description of the scoring system, if any
 * a sequence of sample screens showing how one moves and acts on the game
 * a flowchart of all major branches in the game
 * a description of the events within each of the major branches including the entry decision that starts the branch
 * sample screens showing a sequence of the story
 * a character dictionary describing the appearance, background, motivation, and other characteristics of everyone who appears in the story
 * a description of the categorization scheme used for questions
 * sample questions within each category showing questions at each level of difficulty
 * sample screens showing the sequence of question asking, learner input, and feedback
 * sample screens showing introductory material, high score pages, etc.
 * a description of the scoring system to be used
 * a description of the categorization scheme used for sprites moving on the screen
 * sample images within each category showing sprites at each level of difficulty
 * sample screens showing the sequence of animation, learner input, and consequences
 * sample screens showing introductory material, high score pages, etc.
 * a description of all user-manipulable variables in the game
 * a description of all output variables displayed
 * a description of the initial or default state of all variables
 * sample screens showing a sequence of situation, learner input, and result
 * sample screens showing introductory material, high score pages, etc.
 * a description of the mathematical and logical relationships that link the input variables and output variables (i.e., the underlying model of the simulation).
 * specific software needed to author the game
 * platform(s) the game would be developed for
 * file formats of graphics and sounds
 * method to accommodate multiple platforms (if that's being done)
 * data structures for any files used to save the game state

Motivational Issues
Describe how the game engages the learner. How does it make use of curiosity, challenge, control, fantasy, competition, cooperation, etc.? (No one game will do all of these things, so focus on the particular strengths of this particular game.) Make specific reference to the theoretical readings associated with this course.

Design Process
Describe the process you went through in putting the game together. What were your first thoughts? How did you enhance your ideas? What ideas did you consider and reject (and why?). How did you gather background information? What did you do to see if there are similar games out there? What did you do to get feedback on the idea? How did you flesh out the game to the point of having a playable prototype? How did you gather feedback from that? What lessons did you learn from this that you'll carry to your next game design project?